How to Guide Visitors from Hello to Heck Yes

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Most websites are designed like digital brochures. 

Pretty. Informative. Full of stuff. 

But not persuasive. 

If your visitors have to figure out where to go or what to do next, you’re losing them. 

In today’s episode, I’m showing you how to create conversion paths — intentional flows through your site that guide people from “hello” to “heck yes, I’m in.” 

Whether your goal is to get people to sign up, book a call, or make a purchase — this will change how you think about your site forever. 

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Episode Transcript

Carrie Saunders (00:00):
Most websites are designed like digital
brochures.
Pretty, informative, full offluff and stuff, but not
persuasive.
If your visitors have to figureout where to go or what to do
next, you are losing them.
In today's episode, I'm showingyou how to create conversion
paths, internal flows throughyour site that guide people from

(00:25):
hello to heck yes, I am in.
Whether your goal is to getpeople to sign up, to book a
call, or to make a purchase,this will change how you think
about your website forever.
And don't worry, I'll walk youthrough a real life example of a
simple conversion path that youcan map out in about 10 minutes
or less.
So let's dive in.
Struggling to turn websitetraffic into real sales, you're

(00:47):
not alone and you don't have tofigure it out all yourself.
Welcome to Smarter OnlineBusiness, the podcast for course
creators, coaches, ande-commerce entrepreneurs who
want their websites to convertvisitors into buyers without the
tech overwhelm.
I'm your host, Carrie Saunders,a website strategist and
conversion expert with over 20years of experience.
Each episode delivers simple,proven strategies to help you

(01:10):
generate more revenue and makeyour website your smartest sales
tool.
Welcome back to the episode.
So let's start off with what isa conversion path and why do
you need one?
You may have heard me here saythat in the intro, and you might
have been thinking, what isthat, Carrie?
So a conversion path is anintentional journey someone
takes through your website thatleads them towards a goal.

(01:32):
So it's not just random clicks,it's designed.
It's a flow that you design.
Think of it like breadcrumbsthat lead people from curiosity
to clarity to commitment.
Most websites drop people onthe homepage hoping that they
will figure it out.
Smart sites lead people step bystep through the
decision-making process becausewe don't want to think.

(01:56):
As consumers, we just don'twant to think.
We want to be told what to do.
Even if that might not be aconscious thing, our primal
brains just want to be told whatto do.
So your website isn't justshowing what you offer, it
should be guiding people to takeaction.
It should be guiding them onthat path.
So, what are the types ofconversion paths you should

(02:21):
have?
So the first one is you'regoing to want to have a home
page to your freebie, to youremail welcome, or to your offer.
Or say your e-commerce and youdon't have a freebie, you may
want to guide them from yourhome page to your email, which
welcomes them into your offer.
This is perfect for nurturingand list building and getting

(02:41):
people comfortable with you andyour business.
You might also have one whereit's a home page to a service
page, contact or book a call.
So let's say you are a serviceprovider or coach.
This might be a great path foryour type of website.
Or maybe your conversion pathcould be they land on your blog

(03:03):
post.
They decide to get a relatedfreebie or product from it, and
then they go to your sales pageand check out.
This is ideal for most contentcreators, and this is also great
for search engine strategy ornurturing a slow burn traffic.
So the traffic that's a littlebit slower to commit.
So note you don't need all ofthese right away.

(03:25):
Start with the primary paththat makes the most sense for
your business and make sure it'sclear and easy to follow.
So let's talk about why dopeople drop off and how to keep
them moving.
So people leave websites forseveral different reasons.
When they hit a dead end andthey don't know where to go
next, and they have to think andthey get too confused and

(03:46):
they're bored, their brain goes,Oh, let's go do something else,
right?
They might be overwhelmed.
So there might be too manyoptions to do on your website.
And they might not understandwhat's in it for them.
This is one of the fastest waysfor people to leave is they
don't understand what is in itfor them on your website.
So to fix this, we want to makesure every page has one clear

(04:07):
call to action.
One thing you want them to do,even though you might sell or
provide many different types ofwonderful things out there, each
page is designed for one task.
So use buttons, internal links,and visual cues to guide their
journey to this one clear paththat you're starting on for this
page.
And keep your message focusedand benefit driven.

(04:30):
They want to know what's in itfor them.
That's just who we are, humannature.
We want to know what's in itfor them.
Even if we aren't superself-centered, our primal self
still wants to know what's in itfor them.
We're all busy, we don't have awhole lot of time, and we want
to make sure we're using ourtime wisely.
So I want to go into that10-minute conversion path

(04:51):
mapping exercise.
That's a bit of a mouthful thatI promised you earlier.
I want you to choose one goal.
What is your goal?
Do you want to get someone todownload your Phoebe?
Do you want them to sign up foryour newsletter?
Do you want them to ask aquestion about a product you
have on your website?
What is the goal?
And then ask yourself, whatpage do they end up landing on

(05:13):
first?
And then what is the nextlogical step?
And then what?
So now go to add a button or alink on each page that you think
needs this conversion to createthat path.
So let me repeat that pathagain.
First, where are they starting?
What page are they landing onfirst?
What's that next logical step?

(05:34):
And then what should they do?
So think about that.
So this 10-minute conversionpath mapping exercise is
something that I teach in mycourse, the converting website.
And it's just something that Ifind when my students learn the
customer journey.
We call it the customerjourney, and they're when they

(05:55):
learn about the customerjourney, they're like, whoa, I
never really thought about that.
I just put stuff on my websiteI thought was important.
I never thought about how arethey going to go through my
website.
It's kind of like if you gointo a grocery store or a shop
and you walk in and everything'shaphazardly everywhere, you're
going to probably turn aroundand leave.

(06:16):
Most stores are designed foryou to walk in and have a
certain path to go through them.
Think about the last time youwent to Kroger or Walmart or
Aldi or wherever, whatever typeof grocery store you have in
your area.
You probably walked in thefront door.
You probably walked through thefresh fruits and the fresh
vegetables first, right?

(06:36):
And then there might have beenlike a meat section.
And then you may have had likeall the aisles of processed
foods.
And then eventually you end upin the dairy and the frozen
foods.
And then what do they do inthose stores too?
They put little the end caps,that's the end of the aisles.
Those are there on purpose.
Those are interrupts.
Those are too, there's like aclick me by here button.

(06:59):
So those interrupt your brain,and you're like, oh wait, I
wasn't looking for this, but Ikind of really want this thing.
And so then they, you know, youmight pick it up and you're
putting in your grocery cart,right?
So when we would think aboutour website and our website
pages, we need to think abouthow are we guiding that person
through the website?
We don't want to be having abrochure website.

(07:22):
We don't want to be havingsomething that's just in their
face.
We want something that guidesthat visitor throughout your
website to do the actions thatyou want.
And that's something that mystudents absolutely love when we
do the exercise in theconverting website course that
we have.
So what I want you to do nextis I want you to test your

(07:43):
conversion pass today.
Even if you can't do it rightat this moment, maybe you're
driving or maybe you're walkingyour dog, et cetera, make an
appointment on your calendar forlater today or tomorrow at the
latest.
And I want you to test yourconversion pass.
I want you to pick one of youroffers, your freebies, your
products.
And I want you to ask ifsomeone landed on my homepage

(08:05):
right now, how many steps wouldit take for them to find this
action and go for it?
If the answer is more thanthree to four clicks, then
there's room to tighten yourpath.
Nobody wants to click more thanthree to four clicks to get to
what they're trying to get to.
And tightening that path, itoften leads to higher

(08:26):
conversions without driving asingle extra visitor to your
website.
So this is the way you can makethe most of the traffic you
already have and convert thembetter and get higher sales and
higher revenue.
That's all we have for thisweek's episode of the Smarter
Online Business Podcast.
We hope you thoroughly enjoyedthis conversation we had today

(08:48):
about your customer journey andhow they go through your website
to help make your conversionsmuch better.
And apparently, our boy Cat Macis wanting to say bye to you
guys today.
So be sure to subscribe to thepodcast wherever you're
listening.
Subscribe to it if you'relistening on YouTube, and rate
and review us on Apple Podcasts.
That really helps get the wordout there so that we can help

(09:11):
more business owners just likeyou.